Energy absorption systems make possible an absorption of impact energy in the event of a crash and usually serve for the protection of vehicle occupants and/or pedestrians in or on a motor vehicle.
Usually, energy absorption systems comprise a plastic bag or fabric bag, which in the event of an accident is suddenly inflated between the occupants and parts of the vehicle interior or between a pedestrian and a bodywork part of the motor vehicle. Because of this it is prevented that the occupants or the pedestrian crash into hard parts of the motor vehicle.
In more recent energy absorption systems, such plastic or fabric bags are no longer used. Instead, the energy absorption systems have an elastic structure, which in the event of a crash can be inflated like a balloon by a gaseous medium, thus forming a structure which acts as occupant protection and/or pedestrian protection. Compared with the conventional plastic bag or fabric bag, the elastic structure has the advantage that it requires less installation space, has a lower weight and is more cost effective. The elastic structure can also be reused, since it substantially returns to its original shape when the gaseous medium has disappeared.
In practice, it has been shown, however, that the elastic structure with increasing lifespan is subject to ageing caused through environmental influences, which become noticeable through the formation of minute pores and/or cracks. The consequence of this is that the elastic structure in the event of a crash no longer expands to the aspired volume since the elastic structure through the minute pores or cracks increasingly becomes permeable to gas. A safe functionality of the elastic structure in an energy absorption system can thus no longer be adequately guaranteed from a certain degree of ageing, so that the elastic structure has to be replaced with a new elastic structure even at an early stage. However, a premature and frequent replacement of the elastic structure in turn brings about unintentional additional costs.
It is at least one object herein to take measures by means of which, in the case of energy absorption systems with an elastic structure having the features mentioned at the outset, an adequate functionality of the elastic structure is maintained intact for longer than previously.